That’s the thing. A Maine Coon is just about the coolest cat there is. They’re enormous, smart, playful, and gorgeous with huge ruffs. Who wouldn’t want one? But a black tabby? Fills me with “meh”.
I just have to mention that Frisco, a quickly-growing suburb of Dallas, recently changed the name of their high school sports teams away from “The Fighting Coons.” They had a big racoon face painted on their watertower and everything. Good thing they didn’t by cheap paint when they painted over it, otherwise someone might have called them “niggardly .”
Better, actually. Idiots are more likely to hand it over so they can play an online video game while you, as creator of said game, can enjoy spending it without guilt because they’re, you know, idiots. 
(checking out the WoW site)
Damn! Considering I’m running a dual processor on a T1 line if the lag people complain about is anything like the wait for that front page to load I can see why people complain.
Jesus: Are you saved yet? ::slap::, huh? Are ya? ::slap::
From that link, looks like they could have renamed them “Maine Shags”. Now that couldn’t possibly offend anybody, could it? 
It’s a little bewildering. How many people could have possibly complained? Really, I’d be curious to know. Your average WoW player is not one to be eaisly offended, especially by something as stupid as that. If they got more than 2 or 3 complaints I’d suspect that someone was farking with them.
I’m not sure how bewildering it is… victim politics are somewhat wide spread these days, and the offenderati are legion.
In other news, racoons have now been renamed “that weird thing that always gets into the garbage.”
or, maybe it came from alot of the europeans who hadn’t actually heard of a “maine coon”.
the game is played outside America.
Was coon even a slur in non-english speaking European nations? I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in Britain…
In any case, I don’t see why Europeans wouldn’t have heard about the breed. It’s not any rarer than other breeds, I wouldn’t think.
I don’t understand why “coon” is used as a racial slur anyway. I don’t think I even heard that one until relatively recently.
Ok, this did it. After reading this I had to quit lurking and get a membership. I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to read it aloud.
Maybe if I practice.
They are adorable. We had one for a couple of years, but had to give her up when we moved to an apartment. But be warned: if you get a female, get her fixed quickly. Our went through one heat, and her yowls would peel wallpaper.
On reflection, the name does bother me, but not the “coon” part. It’s the “Maine” part. Where exactly in Azeroth does one locate the state of Maine?
[perhaps cat fanciers may have heard of it, but not your everyday populace.
and english speaking countries woulde certainly have heard of “coon” as a racial slur.
Miller: top right tip of the continental states.
twist: Perhaps, but, on the other note, there aren’t exactly a lot of English speaking countries in Europe. I’m still not convinced that it’s a slur in Britain.
I don’t know. I’m not a cat fancier, particularly (we’s dog people around these parts, in case the user name didn’t give it away), but I’ve heard of (and met) Maine Coons.
D’oh! :smack:
I thought you were using that word, like “where in hell…”
Didn’t realize there was a real virtual world. So, um… yep.
~flees~
According to my English Fierra (and the Compact Oxford English Dictionary), it is. Also according to Fierra, it’s butthead stupid change for them to make in the game.